The study was inspired by the example of a hospital in Estonia.
Photograph: Jennifer Polixenni Brankin/Getty Images

Premature babies do better if their parents are allowed to help care for them in hospital alongside the nurses, rather than being treated as visitors and left on the sidelines, a new study shows.

Many parents feel acutely anxious, stressed and out of control when their child is in a newborn intensive care unit and there seems to be nothing they can do for her. Inspired by the example of a hospital in Estonia that brings in parents to help with basic care of their baby, doctors in Canada organised a major study in three countries – Canada, Australia and New Zealand – to see what the effect is on the baby.

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In their paper in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal, they say that feeling excluded in the premature baby unit could have long-term consequences for the parents. “These feelings of helplessness, anxiety, depression, and fear might contribute to their inability to assume normal parenting roles,” they write.

The study involved 26 hospitals and nearly 1,800 babies, half of whom had basic care from their parents alongside the nursing staff, while the other half did not. Parents had to commit to spending six hours a day, five days a week, in the unit and were trained to help. They bathed, fed and dressed their babies, changed nappies, gave oral medication and took temperatures. They were encouraged to take part in decisions about the baby’s treatment, join ward rounds and chart their infant’s growth and progress.

The babies on what was called FiCare – family integrated care – had put on more weight by 21 days, their parents were less stressed and once the baby went home, the mothers were more likely to breastfeed frequently than mothers who had been less involved in the hospital.

“How care is provided to the family, not just the infant, has a positive effect on the wellbeing of both infant and family,” says Dr Karel O’Brien, of the department of paediatrics, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Canada. “Weight gain, breastfeeding and reduced parental stress and anxiety are all associated with positive neurodevelopmental outcomes, suggesting that integrating parents into the care of infants at this early stage could potentially have longer-term benefits.”